Price tag



June 27, 1933.

F. w. LAENCHER 1,916,002

PRICE TAG Filed NOV. 18, 1952 v wlNVENTOR AT TORNEY Patented June 27, 1933 1 ,9 1

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK W. LAENCHER, OF ELMI-IURST, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO A. KIMBALL COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK PRICE TAG Application filed November' 18, 1932. Serial No. 643,148.

This invention relates to price tags of the sheet metal and may be of any desired shape, type intended to be secured to articles of but are preferably round, as illustrated, for merchandise in such manner that they canconvenience in manufacture and in operanot be removed therefrom without detection. tion. The member 7 is substantially cup- 5 It is an object'of the invention to provide shaped having abott-om disk 9, tubular side J55 a price tag of this type which shall provide walls 10, and a lip -or flange 11 extending improved safeguards against removal, and laterally from the upper edge-of the side which shall be more easily and economically walls. Between the disk 9 and'the side walls applied to articles of" merchandise than tags 10 is formed a bead or flange 12, providing -10 of this typenow in use. a shoulder 13 for purposes hereinafter set so Other objects of the invention will apforth. pear hereinafter. The member 8 is somewhat similar in A preferred embodiment of the invention shape, having tubular side walls 14: termiselected for purposes of illustration is shown nating in a lip or flange 15, but instead of l5 in the accompanying drawing, in which, a bottom'disk,the'metal is cut and bent back 65 Figure 1 is a perspective view illustratas illustrated in Figure 4 to form a plu ing the first, step in the attachment of such rality of resilient prongs16, which,when the tag to an article of merchandise. 1 members? and 8 are forced into engagement Figure 2 is a similar view showing the secas illustratech'engage the bead 13, thus lock- 0nd step of the attachment. ing the members together permanently. J0 Figure 3 is a similar view illustrating the In the manufacture of the tags, the mem-' final step of attachment. bers 7 and 8 are inserted in the apertures Figure l: is an enlarged sectionof the lockof the flaps 2 and 5, and when the tag is made ng se l, k n 011 he line H Of Figure 5- of relatively stiff material, as for example, i Figure 5 is a bottom plan view of the seal., light cardboard',the friction of the material Referring to the drawing the ag magainst the tubular side walls 10 and 14, re-' prises two connectedflaps 1 and 2 adapted spectively, is sufficient to retain the members to receive between them the article to be in place. Furthermore, in the caseeof the marked; The flap 1 is providedwit 3 member 7, the head 12 serves to hold the 30 tening device preferably located near its member in place. If desired, however, the edge, as for example, the attaching staple 3. members may be positively retained by the The flap 2 is provided with a slot 4: through ro i i f ll ib 18; which the ends of the staple y P $0 In some instances, it may be desirable to that the said staple ends may be turned down provide means permitting easy removal of -35 upon the slotted flap as illustrated in F1gthe tag by an authorized person, and such ure 12, in Order t0 llOlCl the article securely he means may comprise the, line of perforatween the flaps. tions 19 surrounding the seal and providing In order to prevent talnperlng W t a line of weakness which permits the tag to tag as thus secured to the article, a covering t a a ilyif the flap is pulled upwardly. .40 flap 5 is connected to the flap 2, and the said :[n applying the members to the tag, the. covering flap and the flap 2 are Provi ed w h member 7' is preferably applied to the coverapertures in which are inserted the two parts i' fl p, a d th mb 8 i att h d to th Of a lOCli seal device, which, as hereinafter flapQ, where it, is less accessible to tampering, described, can be readily snapped into place, Furthermore the flange 11 of the member 7 but once closed, cannot be reopened without 1 is preferably provided with a weakened pordetection. tion 17 which is easily broken in the event I A preferredform of lock seal device is ilthat it is attempted to pry the members lustrated in Figures 4: and 5, the seal comapart.'. prising the two mating members 7 and 8. \Vhen it is desired to lock the seal, the 50 The said members. are preferably made of two members are forced into engagement in and the member 8 is very small, it is diliito l.

cult to tamper with the prongs from the other side. Moreover, as previously explained,'this side is substantially enclosed and is not accessible to tampering in any event.

Tickets or tags of this general type are known in the art and are used in commerce, .one form of such tag being disclosed in United States Patent No. 1,054,927 and another in Patent No. 1,680,459. In all such tags known to applicant heretofore, ordinary metal eyelets have been used tosecurethe flaps together, andit has been necessary to use a tool to flange the eyelet. Furthermore,

. because of the use of such eyelets, and because of the necessity of using a tool, the eye- ;let-hadto bepassed through allthree flaps of. the tag, and furthermore the eyelet had to be placed beyond the edge of the article 2;? :of merchandise in order that the tool could be used effectively without danger of damaging the article. Furthermore, the eyelets used with such tags in the past are in comnon use and are easily available for substitution for a removed eyelet. V

5 The above-described tag avoids all of these objections, for 'it requires no tool to apply it, and since it requires no tool, it may be attached to an article or garment in any nonvenient location, irrespective of the position of the S Furthermore, the seal is much more difficult to remove than the eyelet,,and even if removed, duplicate seals will not be readily available for substitution. Due to the provision of the weakened flange porti0n 17, any attem t to pry the members apart will break the flange and destroy the seal.

, It Will, be understood that the invention may be variously modified and embodied within the scope of the subjoined claims.

I claim as my invention:

, 1. A price tag comprising two connected flapsadapted to receive between them the material tobe marked, one of said flaps being provided with an aperture, and the other of said flaps being provided with a fastening device-adapted to pass through the material and, through said aperture and to be turned .down upon said apertured flap, a covering 0 flap connected to said apertured flap and adapted to be folded back on said apertured flap to cover the part of said fastening device passing through said aperture, and a lock seal comprising two interengaging members, one

M member being mounted on said apertured flap down upon said apertured flap, a covering flap connected to said aperturedfiap and adapted to be folded back on said apertured flap to cover the part of said fastening device passmg through said aperture, and a lock seal comprising two interengaging members, one

member being mounted on said apertured flap and the other member being mounted on said covering flap, said members when engaged and locked being adapted to secure said oovering flap to said apertured flap in order to prevent tampering with said fastening de-' vice, said covering flap having a weakened portion surround ng said seal along which said flap may be torn to remove the tag.

3. A price tag for an article comprising a. folded body portion having a fastening device comprising prongs secured to one folded portion and passing through the artlcle and the other folded portion, a flap covering said prongs to prevent access to the same when,

fastened, and a lock seal device having one" interengagingmember mounted on said covering flap and another lnterengaging member mounted on said folded portion through which said prongs are passed, said members. when engaged and locked being adapted to secure said covering flap to said folded portion through whlch' said prongs are passed. 4. A price tag for an article comprising a folded body portion having a fastening de-,.

vice comprising prongs secured to one folded" portion and passing through the article and the other folded portion, a fiap covering said prongs to prevent access to the same when fastened, and a lock seal device having one.

interengaging member mounted on said cov ering flap and another interengaging member mounted on said folded portion through which said prongs are passed, said members when engaged and locked being adapted to-.

secure said covering flap to said folded por tion through which said prongs are passed, said covering flap having a weakened portion surrounding said seal along which said flap may be torn to remove the tag. c. 5. A price tag comprising three sections" including two end sections and one middle section separated'by two lines of fold, a fastening device secured to one of said end sections and adapted to be fastened through said--- middle section, said other end section being folded to cover that part of the fastening device which passes through said middle section, said middle section being provided with one part of a lock seal and said other end section being provided with another part of a lock seal, said parts being so located that when engaged and locked said other end sec- FREDERICK 'W. LAEN CHER. 

